Dad's 80th Birthday Party

I had good intentions of taking lots of pictures are my dad's birthday party but then I got wrapped up in meat cutting, and veggie tray making and setting out food that I didn't get more than a couple.  We had intended to have a big party at the Rabbit Lake hall which is what we had for my uncle Henry when he turned 80 but soon we realized that my dad would just not be up for that so we just invited the closest neighbors and friends to our house.  We ended up with 30 or so people and it was the perfect amount.  The food was great and my dad stayed awake for the whole thing and was really touched by it all.  My whole family-every member was there for it and that was really nice too (that only happens about once every 2 years maybe).

This was the guest book-we included the mandolin used by my dad and aunt as part of their band as well as some old sheet music and a music composition book that belonged to my dad.  We had guests write a memory about dad on a card as well and that was kind of fun and I know he appreciated them.

On the tables we had old western producer magazines.  I bought them at an auction long ago and they are the perfect decoration for these types of things as my dad and my uncle have read the western producer for as long as I can remember and probably before that.  It was cool because one of the papers was from 1937 and it had the headline that a girl named Amelia Earhart had gone missing in a plane accident.  Cool huh.  We also had paper sacks of shelled peanuts which are another Konopelski staple.

This was Jakob waiting for supper and a little snitch of peanuts.

Greg models the birthday hats that a neighbor brought.

Here is Grandpa Sam with all his grandchildren.  Jakob and Andrew were not in any mood for pictures but I wanted to have at least one picture of my dad from the whole trip.

After the party we sat around as a family and discussed future events-funerals, taking care of my mom, division of belongings etc.  It wasn't really an uplifting conversation but one that needed to take place and might not ever have been done again so I am glad we did it.